WCP2236

[1]

Hanley, Staff.

Jan. 9, 1870.

My dear Sir,

I ought long since to have written you to thank you for the great delight I have had in reading your two beautiful volumes¹. Reading a book is usually a tedious process with me, but in this case I was interrupted by a journey to Italy.

I am very glad to find that you met with such wonderful success in the collection of specimens, and it is a very happy [2] circumstance that you withstood all the dangers, and that your strength was sufficient to resist all the attacks upon your health.

Your work will always rank among those charming books on Natural History, which it is a most pleasant privilege to read. I see there is a German translation².

I bought of M^r Stevens³ one of your Mias [Indigenous language: Orang-utan] skulls, marked ♂13. It has been considerably mauled in the killing. I subsequently received from D^r Broekmeijer⁴ another, which is only [3] very slightly larger, but which was said to have been known in the forest for 45 years. The teeth are all blackened, as if the animal had chewed Betel like a Javan. They are very little worn, and only one appears to have been absent at the death, the ^second first upper ^bicuspid molar on the left side, in the loss of which there must have been a good deal of disease[?], as the whole of the alveolus is gone. D^r B[roekmeijer] seemed to think that the age was authentic & that the animal had been well known. It was also said to be the largest ever taken. I could not help doubting but perhaps on insufficient [4] grounds.

I have just received a fine skull, indeed an incomplete skeleton of a Gorilla. The enormous supraciliary ridge and the crests are quite in contrast with the Mias.

Your remarks upon the value of the skull in classifying human races are not without foundation; yet I think of saying a few words in favour of the skull. It will always be of the first importance.

I still have a friend in the Indian archipelago, D^r C. Swaving,⁵ a very worthy and accomplished Dutchman, indeed I have received two communications from him this week.

I feel very much indebted to you for your charming volumes. Do not fail to tell me if you⁶ can dispose of another copy of my "Thesaurus"⁷ to any friend. I am, my dear sir,

Yours faithfully | J. Barnard Davis [signature]